When Policy Is Defied: Occupy Wall Street and the Shapes of Avoidance

New or modified regulations can quickly alter landscapes and the form of urban settlements, even if the consequences are unintended

Last year, I asked what elements of today's urban landscape occur
in spite of urban land use policy and regulation, and form "shapes of
avoidance." I provided a historical example, and suggested modern
counterparts. That was before Occupy Wall Street and its progeny.

The form of urban settlements and appearance of constituent structures reflect underlying culture and regulation.

In times of change, buildings, landscapes, and objects transform to
show the impact of new or modified policies or regulations. And the
resulting shapes of compliance -- such as the patterns of height, bulk, and
density dictated by a new downtown zoning code -- can potentially reinvent
the urban landscape.

But the urban landscape can also be dramatically altered by "shapes of avoidance."

Consider, in the context of everyday urbanism, those shapes and patterns dictated by focused avoidance of regulation.

Here, I am discussing not just spontaneous parklets and sidewalk tables of guerrilla urbanism" or "pop-up" cities, but widespread examples of urban forms that result when policy or regulation is creatively defied.

Call it the urban landscape's manifestation of French-American microbiologist René Dubos' classic discourses on remarkable and unpredictable human adaptation to environmental change, Man Adapting and So Human an Animal.

A compelling example is the alteration of a southern Italian
landscape in the 15th to 17th centuries premised on the avoidance of
taxes or fees -- the apparent explanation for the unique shape of trulli houses in Puglia, Italy -- and the resulting appearance of the Itria Valley and the town of Alberobello.

As the story goes, local inhabitants built the conical houses -- that
don't look like houses -- without mortar. This method allowed easy
destruction, so the Counts of Conversano could avoid property tax
payments to the King of Naples on permanent structures (such as
residences).

Charles R. Wolfe is an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting, including the use of innovative land use regulatory tools and sustainable development techniques.